The challenges of land use change
"I just scratch my head in wonderment when people say to farmers, 'just change what you farm'."
Massey University's agricultural students have responded well to online learning in the present Covid-19 environment.
Head of Massey's school of Agriculture and Environment, Paul Kenyon says it's clear students have been disappointed at the cancellation of numerous physical activities they would normally do as part of their degrees.
He says to make up for it, staff have created equivalent online activities to ensure that the students have met their learning objective.
"Despite the best efforts, the online activities never fully replace hands-on activities," Kenyon told Rural News.
"The students have adapted and coped very well and, remember the modern student is very good at handling electronic media sources."
He says it was probably more of a challenge for staff to adapt their teaching to develop virtual field trips.
But Kenyon says the farms involved were very helpful in terms of providing a virtual alternative and the students seem to respond to that quite well.
Normally at this time of the year, Massey stages a special dinner to honour its top ag students, but this was also cancelled due to Covid. Kenyon says despite this the internal assessment results of this year's students was equivalent to last year.
The joint winners of the William Gerrish Memorial Awards for excellence in farm management were Chelsea Hopkins and Bruce Donald. Both come from farms in the Manawatu area.
Benjamin Crane received the Massey Agriculture Student of the Year Award.
This award is nominated by fellow students and is for the person considered to have made the best contribution to the well-being and reputation of students in the agricultural programmes.
The Zespri prize for excellence in horticulture was awarded to Bram Paans, who grew up on a mixed organic and conventional market garden enterprise in Wairarapa.
Analysis by Dunedin-based Techion New Zealand shows the cost of undetected drench resistance in sheep has exploded to an estimated $98 million a year.
Shipping disruption caused by Houthi rebels in the Red Sea has so far not impacted fertiliser prices or supply on farm.
The opportunity to spend more time on farm while providing a dedicated service for shareholders attracted new environmental manager Ben Howden to work for Waimakariri Irrigation Limited (WIL).
Federated Farmers claims that the Otago Regional Council is charging ahead unnecessarily with piling more regulation on rural communities.
Dairy sheep and goat farmers are being told to reduce milk supply as processors face a slump in global demand for their products.
OPINION: We have good friends from way back who had lived in one of our major cities for many years.